The invention relates to a vacuum coating system having a coating chamber, which can be evacuated, for a substrate to be coated, and having at least one source chamber connected therewith for a material source for the coating material. With respect to the known prior artxe2x80x94particularly with respect to advantageous further developments of the inventionxe2x80x94reference is made to German Patent Document DD 279 695 A1, which is used as an example.
In the case of the vacuum coating systems known so far, the substrate to be coated as well as a material source for the coating material are essentially in a common space which can be evacuated and which, only by means of a so-called screen provided for the targeted guiding of the vaporous coating material, is virtually divided into a so-called coating chamber in which the substrate is situated and a so-called source chamber in which the material source for the coating material is situated. These two chambers of the space, which in the known prior art is a single space, are jointly evacuated in order to generate the vacuum required for the coating operation, but are also jointly ventilated when the substrate to be coated is removed from the vacuum coating system after the conclusion of the coating operation. However, this is a disadvantage because, in the process, the material source for the coating material comes in contact with ambient air and may be contaminated thereby, for example, by the precipitation of air humidity, which will be explained in detail below.
Another disadvantage of the joint arrangement of the substrate to be coated as well as of the material source essentially in a common space which can be evacuated will occur when there are disturbances on the material source for the coating material during the coating process. It may, for example, be required to exchange this material source although the coating process has not been completely concluded. Then the vacuum coating system must necessarily be opened and therefore ventilated, whereby the already started coating process is disturbed and the substrate, which has only been partially coated by this point in time, therefore becomes useless.
However, the known prior art is particularly disadvantageous in connection with the deposition of multiple layers, that is, of several layers of different materials on a substrate to be coated, in which case different material sources are also required.
For this deposition of multiple layers in combination with amorphous carbon layers, a laser-induced vacuum arc discharge evaporator is known from German Patent Document DE 279 695 A1, in the case of which the materials to be evaporated are applied in disk shape to a rotating roller-shaped cathode which is arranged at any point in relationship to the substrate to be coated in the vacuum recipient.
It is a disadvantage of this arrangement that the cathode consisting of different materials is situated in the common space or in the coating chamber and, despite appropriate shielding devices, it can therefore not be prevented that the passive materials of the roller-shaped cathode are contaminated such that the purity of the deposited layers or layer sequences cannot be ensured.
Another disadvantage is the fact that, as the result of the different abrasion of the individual cathode materials, the cathode-anode spacing is altered so non-uniformly that no constantly stable ignition conditions can be ensured in the case of any materials for long-lasting coating cycles under realistic, particularly series-production conditions. For ensuring these ignition conditions, a high-expenditure mechanical turning-off of the cathode roller is required, which considerably reduces the degree of utilization of the cathode material.
Another disadvantage is the result of the limited deflection possibilities of a laser beam under which the focal plane can be ensured on a target (this concerns the cathode or the material source for the coating material). This determines the length of a target (cathode) so that, in the case of a cathode constructed of different materials, no conditions can be ensured for the homogeneous deposition of these materials on large-surface substrates without additional high-expenditures substrate movements.
Another disadvantage of the cathode arrangement in the common space or in the coating chamber is caused by required ventilating cycles during the exchange of the substrate. As the result of the fact that the cathode material comes in contact with the ambient atmosphere, particularly water (air humidity) may precipitate on the cathode surface. This is particularly dramatic in the case of graphite because of its porosity (xe2x88x928%) in comparison to metals because, analogous to activated carbon, for example, water is embedded and stored in the case of graphite. Thus, no constant layer quality of high-grade amorphous carbon layers can be ensured since, particularly at the start of the coating process, hydrogen and oxygen are released and are included in the deposited layer. It was proven that the hardness of amorphous carbon layers is reduced by the embedding of hydrogen. For preventing such an embedding of hydrogen into the layer, an additional heating of the cathode is required before the start of the deposition. The reason is that, in principle, water should be avoided in the case of the low-temperature coating ( less than 100xc2x0 C.) because it has been proven to be the cause of an insufficient adhesion and resulting layer detachments.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a vacuum coating system which is improved with respect to the above and in the case of which there is no occurrence of at least the most serious above-indicated disadvantages. For achieving this object, it is provided that the coating chamber can be separated in a vacuum-tight manner from the source chamber which can be evacuated by itself. This means that the coating chamber can be evacuated or may remain when the source chamber is ventilated orxe2x80x94as explained in detail belowxe2x80x94is exchanged for another source chamber.
Within the scope of advantageous further developments, which are indicated in the subclaims, it is an object of the invention to implement an arrangement for a laser-induced vacuum arc evaporator by means of which, under the conditions of a series production, on large-surface components (substrates) to be coated, homogeneous multiple layers consisting of at least two different material can be deposited in an effective manner.
Therefore, by means of a suitable device and arrangement of a laser-induced vacuum arc evaporator, it is to be possible to effectively deposit homogeneous multiple layers on large-surface components (substrates), in which case, a high operational safety of the evaporator is to be ensured while the utilization of the cathode material is good.
As indicated, according to the invention, the coating chamber in which the substrate to be coated is situated can be separated in a vacuum-tight manner from the source chamber which can be evacuated by itself and in which the material source for the coating material is situated. This means that either the coating chamber is accessible without any ventilation of the source chamber, or the source chamber is accessible without any ventilation of the coating chamber. This is possible in that one separate chamber respectively is provided for the substrate to be coated as well as for the material source for the coating material, in which case the connection between these two chambers required for the coating process can be interrupted. Naturally, it is necessary in this context to construct each chamber so that it can be evacuated separately; that is, a vacuum can in each case be generated separately in the coating chamber as well as in the source chamber. For the removal of the substrate as well as for the exchange of the material source in the coating chamber, these two chambers can therefore be separated from one another, for example, by means of a conventional plate valve which, in particular, has the shape of a separating wall.
However, this construction according to the invention is particularly advantageous when different coating materials are to be applied to the substrate because then a separate so-called source chamber can be provided for each coating material or for the pertaining material source.
The coating chamber can then be successively connected in a simple manner with different source chambers which is particularly advantageous for a series production, that is, for an industrial-scale coating of substrates. In the following, this will be explained in greater detail for a preferred application, specifically for the coating by means of a laser-induced vacuum arc evaporator, in which case each material source is arranged on a rotatable cathode and each cathode is arranged in a separate source chamber.
In this case, each type of material to be evaporated, in the form of a cathode rotating in a roller-type manner, is housed in a separate source chamber, in which case the individual source chambers can be evacuated sequentially and can be closed in a vacuum-tight manner by plate valves. It should be explicitly pointed out that, if, for example, two source chambers are present, only one of these two source chambers, can be evacuated preferably by means of a separate vacuum system assigned to this source chamber, while, for example, the cathode material can be exchanged at the other source chamber.
Preferably these source chambers are flanged to suitable positions of the coating chamber such that the cathode material of the source chamber whose plate valve was opened is deposited in a homogeneous manner and with high purity on a large-surface component/substrate. After the desired layer thickness has been reached on the substrate, the corresponding plate valve is closed and the next layer, consisting of the material of a second source chamber, is deposited after the opening of the corresponding plate valve. Only the plate valve of that source chamber is opened in each case from which material is just being evaporated so that the purity of the material in the other source chamber remains unchanged.
During the ventilation of the coating chamber for the exchange of the substrate, all source chambers remain closed in a vacuum-tight manner so that no air humidity or contaminations can precipitate on the cathodes.
For maintenance purposes or for exchanging the material source, each source chamber may be accessible separately from the outside, for example, by way of a removable wall section of the corresponding source chamber housing. The source chamber housing can also be detachably connected with the housing of the coating chamber, whereby, in the case of a suitable geometrical adaptation, optionally different source chamber housings may be fastened to one point of the coating chamber, or a certain source chamber housing can successively be assigned to different coating chambers. In particular, such source chamber housing, which can be flanged on, may also be provided on a flow coating system with different coating chambers which may be separated from one another by pressure locks and which are described, for example, in German Patent Document DE 44 38 608 C2.
The coating process itself is characterized by the typical features of the laser-induced vacuum arc. By means of a pulsed high-power laser, which ensures in a stable manner by means of its parameters a power density of 108Wcmxe2x88x922 in the focus, the vacuum arc is ignited on the cathode surface. The burning duration of the arc, the material erosion and the plasma characteristics are determined by means of the pulsed current source linked with the cathode and the anode. The linear laser beam oscillation and the rotational movement of the cathode roller ensure a systematic and uniform abrasion of the whole cathode surface. By an adaptation of the cathode length to the substrate dimensions and by a simple linear and rotating substrate movement, a homogeneous coating of the whole substrate surface is achieved. For the effective deposition of multiple layers, at least two source chambers are flanged to a coating chamber, whose cathode rollers are each provided with coating material. In this context, it should be pointed out that naturally different materials may be provided on one cathode roller. For example, disks of aluminum, titanium and carbon can be alternatingly arranged successively or in a stacked manner on the cathode roller.
However, such a source chamber may also be flanged on instead of a target of a magnetron sputtering system so that a superhard amorphous carbon layer can be applied by means of the laser-controlled vacuum arc, for example, directly onto a layer applied by the magnetron.